Monday, 7 January 2013

Serendipity - the start of the Silver Lining

Lucky Snapping in 2013 is now in it's second week and we have moved on to Anne's challenge. Here is what she has asked us to do:

Welcome to you all.So here we are, at the start of the Let's reflect challenge. We will be together for 12 weeks, the 2nd of each month. Wow !I called my challenge let's reflect,
because sometimes life gets in our way, doesn't go at all in the
direction we wanted and we can feel hopeless and disoriented. I have
been in this situation several times and to be honest I am in it right
now,preparing my post in
advance. A good way to go through these difficult times we all
experience is to look inside and also to concentrate on others as
learning from loved ones, even from strangers is also learning about ourselves. As you know our discovery will be based on 12 words, each one starting with a letter from SILVER LINING.Today's word is Serendipity. I absolutely love this word. If you never heard it before, it meansthe act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for itIn simple words, it's taking joy out of something that you didn't expect. It 's a stranger smiling at you and making your day. It's your granddaughter saying " you look beautiful today ".It's a letter from an old friend you had lost contact with.It's a song that brings back some beautiful memories.It's a smell that makes you hungry when you weren't.During this week, we will concentrate on the little things life brings, these little things that we sometimes are too busy to see.
It is a good exercise to look for these moments during this coming week
but you also can use moments having happened before and come back and add moments
that will happen in the future. Remember, we are building a " Silver
Lining book " for difficult times. Anything that can help you, can go
inside.You are doing this challenge for yourself, so whatever your serendipity
examples will be this week or earlier, they are yours. We are all
different, so if your examples only make sense to you and nobody else,
that's OK. If you want to only share some with us and leave the others
hidden, that's OK. If you want to explain a lot or just a little, that's
OK. What is important is what you are doing for yourself.The way you choose to do this challenge
is also up to you. You can take pictures, you can write, you can make a
scrapbook page, you can art journal it, you can draw, you can share
about a book that brightened your life, whatever you feel like doing
will be the right thing to do."

Although I have loved taking a photograph every day, the fact that I also made it into a digital layout meant that I have done very little other crafting, so I am going to take this opportunity to start an art journal. I intend to share the journal here unless there is anything that I feel is too personal.

Tonight I have found a little pamphlet that I will use as my journal and have gessoed the front cover, I hope to gesso the first page tomorrow and then I will start to make my Serendipity page. Already today, I found a little joy at my optician's appointment, let's see what the rest of the week brings!

Serendipity
The act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not LOOKING for it!
On Monday I went to the optician for an eyesight check up. I knew the time had come for varifocals. My sight test went well and although I will need new glasses, the good news is that my eyes are in excellent health and my macular is clear and helathy. Important due to family history of macular degeneration. 10/01/13

Oh wow, I love it Janice. I always dreamt of doing Art Journal and I don't really know where to start but your page is so inspiring ! Oh and well done for having eyes in good health. My mum has a bit of macular degeneration and that's no fun, I know. xxx

Thank you Anne. It's just a bit of cut and stick with colouring in! I find the journalling the hardest bit as I don't like to reveal anything too personal. You would be great at that so you should give it a go.

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